10 No Spend Challenges Everyone Should Try

If you’re looking for a way to get a new perspective on how you spend money, one of the best ways to do this is to do some type of “no spend” challenge. While there are a number of things that a no spend challenge can help improve, probably the main benefit is that it’ll force you to break spending habits that you may not have even known you had. By finding these spending habits, being aware of them, and then coming up with solutions to change them, you put yourself in a position to use your money more effectively and on the things that are really important to you. In this way, no spend challenges are a wonderful way to help you get some insight into your current per!--wsa:adsense-left-->

I try to have No Spend Weeks! I swear every time I leave the house I spend a few hundred dollars. I live in the country and so when I go out I do all of my errands. Which is hard since I need to gas up, get groceries, stop for this part, that part etc. I also incorporated my summers to garage sale’s. I will make a list of things I may need and 90 percent of the time I will find them at the garage sales. I even bought a brand new refrigerator only 6 months old, stainless steel originally $3000 for $400 since they were moving and didn’t want to move it. I just ask people if they other stuff they are thinking about getting rid of. You can save so much, if you just put your mind to it.
I have a bigger challenge this time around….with my husband in Afghanistan I will be trying to have lots of No Spend Day’s and lots of let’s put the money away days this year!

Depending on the no spend category, it might be hard at first. But eventually, I’d learn that there are a lot of things I can live without… and use the money I saved for an emergency fund, college costs, or investments.

I don’t find these challenges especially helpful. Most anyone can go a day without spending, and then go crazy on the very next day. I don’t think it really accomplishes much other than getting you to consolidate your spending into fewer days.

Since I spend most of my time at home, most of these are moot points for me. I never touch coffe, but I do eat chcolate although I try to buy it on sale–still finding some good Christmas stuff on sale 50%.

Things like a limitied no food buying might have worked for me in the past, but my health makes it hard to cook some days so it is easier if I’m already worn out from running errands when I have to just to pick something up on the way home. It is hard to deal with food and cooking when you don’t feel good so you go for fast and cheap rather than homemade. I’ve been slowly trying to figure out ways to make fast food at home with out a lot of clean up mess to deal with. I’m seeing a lot of recipes on Pinterest for slow cooker recipes to freeze ahead of time and cook when needed. I know I need to study up and on my better days try to get at least one food product made up ahead of time and then frozen in meal size constiners.

It has been amazing to me how so much ‘saving’ money is focused on people that go out daily to work. No wonder the elderly and disabled have trouble because of already limited budgets, even if you are having a ‘no spend day’ and realize that you need your medications, you have to go buy them. Those of us at home need to find some other ways to have no spend days of some sort. It is hard to sit back and think of what else you can do since you are already skimping so much of the time.

My hubby and I usually only buy things on a tuesday and a saturday or sunday. We normally do not go out to eat, in fact, it’s probably twice a year if that. All of our meals are usually home cooked, if not, we go to family homes if we are invited for dinner or just wanna get out of the house. We do not go to the movies, we watch movies at home. We never buy clothes unless they are a need, not a want. Any excess buying is if we have some money saved up and we know we can afford it without cinching ourselves too tight. We’ve become very savvy with our money although we don’t have any saved up since we are taking care of debt and slowly saving to get a house, so it’s been rough. It’s also hard when my husband is the only one working and I bring no money home at all. We only have one source of income and he can get laid off at any time, so we have learned to be careful and not spend where we don’t need to. Thanks for the advice and the giveaway!

I only buy organic chocolate these days, so your mileage may vary, but I’ve learned that, per ounce, chocolate chips are just about always cheaper than chocolate bars (especially if you buy the chips in bulk). Plus you might eat less at a sitting if you figure out the minimum amount of chocolate chips that satisfy you.

I lived in a very remote area for over a year and sometimes weather or other issues prevented me from going to town for 3 – 5 weeks. I learned that I had been spending a LOT of money on impulse buys, even though some of these were sale or clearance items that were good buys, the majority were not. I learned that buying in bulk and growing sprouts for fresh veggies was kind of cool.

The closest I’ve done was a no-sugar week, and I really had to plan ahead for that–I made sure there were no parties with friends or at work and I figured out something different to eat for breakfast.

Right now I’m tracking my spending, partly so I can make informed budgeting decisions. But side-effect is similar to having a no-spend challenge: I do slow down and pay more attention to my purchases. The first time I did this I would use an old checkbook register or a little notepad so I could record purchases as I made them so none would slip through the cracks. Now I use a spreadsheet. Refusing to buy something because I’m too lazy or too embarrassed to write it down is a good side-effect.

I like the idea of the no-impulse purchase challenge, but I automatically imagined myself putting things on the list like “cereal if it’s on sale” and “one dessert item,” so I could still have impulses, I mean, remain flexible.

believe me, when i was married to my first husband every day was a no spend challenge. He was an abusive control freak and never let me have any money and i learned to be frugal and he did it just to upset me because I was not a spender, it’s not like i ran up bills

I didn’t gain anything in that situation because he stole my money from a settlement I had and was stupid enough to put it in a joint account. I know when I was on my own with the 2 kids i handled money very well

I just need to get my husband on board. 😀 Having a clear sense of the word “need” makes doing one of these super easy for me. About the only one I would have trouble with is grocery shopping, but that’s because I have kids and really love fresh produce. 75% of my shopping is “walking the perimeter” as my husband calls it. Produce, check for deals on meat, grab milk, go home.

I can and have done all but 2 of these challenges. I have to go to the store at least 2 times a week to buy extra milk as my fiance’ drinks between 2-5 gallons of milk per week and he won’t let me stock up on it. Has to be fresh with an expiration date of at least 10 days away when I bring it home. The other one is the no cable challenge. It’s on in our bedroom every hour of the day that my fiance’ is home. I generally don’t have the tv on when he isn’t here, unless I am sick or laid up from pain. But he has certain programs on every night that he has to watch and then uses it as a night light.

I know friends who could use many of these challenges. I’m retired, have no TV, always have a list before I go shopping (for anything) and I treat myself to fast food about once a month.
Thanks for the contest.